Rapido News and the LRC

[cprail3000]

LRC at speed

www.flickr.com/photos/nirailfan/16993583689/

[mlehman]

Wot? No HOn3 version? I'm flummoxed.


And I bet converting one to HOn3 would be very tricky. And I do have a modern diesel narrowgauge luxury cruise train already, the San Juan Zephyr, here at Durango next to the Houston-Portland Zephyr, or as the crews like to say, the Horsepower Zephyr (which isn't exactly a remark about speed in this case)...


Obviously, neither is as low and fast as an LRC. So I'm guessing the narrowgauge version is out, but with a little paint, I think a Rio Grande LRC would look pretty swift. Maybe, just maybe...hmmm.

Speaking of narrowgauge, I had a brainstorm while composing this email...which means all the storm sewers are probably flooding, but one gem rose to the top since I know that Rapido sometimes gets beyond it's Cozy Canadian Comfort Zone. Thought I'd throw it out there because they have the skills to do it and do it well and it is one of those sorts of tangential products that sort of fits with what has been done well already and there's quite possibly a good market for it and one that a extended sign-up period helps products gestate into viable hot market items.

I'm thinking of a model of the Silver Vista [or more realistically, the Durango & Silverton's reproduction of it, since it's easy to get at with a laser imaging device than the original which burned.)

I know, someone will say, that's more likely as a Blackstone project. Well, maybe, someday, there's quite a backlog now of projects on the burner a long time in Durango. They probably don't consider it (AFAIK it's not come up in any of several surveys they did plumbing the prospects for future projects) as anywhere near as likely to sell a bunch as things like a baggage car, RPO, or combine for instance.

It has been done in brass before. The most recent version (I think) was done by Berlyn and was quite nice and expensive IIRC. There's one with three hours left on auction starting at $650 (with no bites yet, but 21 watching) and a BIN of $850. Earlier versions had issues. I've only seen one and it was kinda coarse and apparently that's what people were happy to get back then. Not really up to snuff for hanging with Blackstone gear. I have no idea how many might sell if someone announced a nicely rendered plastic one for somewhere under $200. The more under the better, of course, but I'm also realistic about small runs and great detail, but if the interior was nice and accessible so you could load you own people, I bet folks would snap them up. True, you really only need one on your layout (another reason why I don't see Blackstone doing this until, say, 2075), but almost everyone with the typical roster of Colorado narrowgauge would certainly desire one, especially so if nicely done as a Rapido car would be.

I realize this is a bit outside the comfort zone here, rather like having to go to work in something other than a Starfleet uniform -- how cool is that? But thought I'd throw that out there in case you, ahem, were ever to run short of projects.